I’m always complaining about food bills. My family will testify how annoyed I get when they then waste the purchased food. “Do you know that people in England and Wales throw away 3.6 million tonnes of food each year?” I ask my three teenage boys, “and that 60 per cent of it is untouched, with salad, fruit and bread being the most commonly wasted?” I fail to engender outrage. But then we’re better off than most. At the weekend the charity, ‘Contact a Family’, warned that families in UK with disabled children are going without basics such as food after being left in financial "dire straits”.

The Mexican authorities are failing in their duty to protect human rights defenders from killings and life-threatening harassment and attacks, a new report from international NGO Amnesty International warns this week.

While the impact of flu viruses and the issues surrounding them is making life increasingly difficult in Mexico, churches in the USA are seeking to respond rationally and with care to a situation where panic can be a major part of the problem.

Health promoters, community and church workers in Mexico are asking why people in their country are dying from swine flu, while wealthy countries panic and the virus spreads around the world. The answer, they say, is that the poor are always the first victims.

A deal brokered with Mexico's government has freed 145 prisoners after campaigning by thousands worldwide. The Catholic Church has successfully helped broker a deal with Mexico's Chiapas state government to free the political prisoners.